10 Terrible Iterations Of Legendary Gimmick Matches

10. World War 3

Our first guilty party to be named and shamed is WCW’s World War 3.

A variation of a Battle Royal, this was in essence WCW’s response to the WWE’s wildly successful Royal Rumble showdown. But rather than simply mimic the Rumble, WCW wanted to up the ante.

So instead of having one ring, World War 3 would have three. And rather than featuring 30 participants, World War 3 would feature 60. Admittedly, that may sound impressive on paper, but in reality it was incredibly difficult to execute correctly.

Cameramen naturally found it difficult to capture all of the action, and with all 60 men starting the match at the same time (much like a traditional Battle Royal) there wasn’t really enough space in which the wrestlers could operate. Long story short; it was all a bit of a mess, really.

The great thing about the Rumble is that the entrants are diluted and smaller sub-plots can develop within the match. In the case of World War 3, the sheer mayhem that came as a result of staging three simultaneous Battle Royals, which would eventually merge into a single contest, just wasn’t able to replicate the magic of the Rumble.

Still, they did manage to eke out four years of the concept before finally replacing it in 1999.